6 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES 
The appearance of these larve is extremely variable, some being smooth, others warty, some hairy, &c. Their 
food consists almost entirely of vegetable matter. Whulst in this state they cast their skins several times, and 
when full-grown this operation is again repeated ; but instead of the insect appearing as a caterpillar, it now 
more nearly resembles an Egyptian mummy; on minutely examining which, however, we can trace the 
rudiments of most of the limbs of the perfect insect, but closely applied to the body and covered by a general 
slender pellicle ; the future wings occupying the sides of the anterior part of the body, between which are to be 
observed the leg-cases and the antenna-cases. The form of these chrysalides, aureliz, or pupe (as the insects 
are termed in this state), varies greatly: those of butterflies may almost always, however, be distinguished by 
having several angular prominences in various parts of the body, whilst those of moths are conical and not 
angularly tubercled. This peculiarity seems dependent on the circumstance that the caterpillars of the latter 
tribes enclose themselves in cocoons or cases entirely of silk, or of silk mixed with various extraneous materials, 
in which angular prominences on the body would be inconvenient to the inclosed insect: the caterpillars of 
butterflies, on the contrary, rarely form cocoons, but are transformed to pupe in the open air. After remaining a 
certain period in this state, the time for the bursting forth of the perfect insect arrives, and after slitting the 
pupa skin in several directions, it disengages itself from its exuvie, gradually extends its wings, and assumes all 
the beautiful characteristics of its perfect state. 
“ Behold, ye pilgrims of this earth, behold ! 
See all, but man, with unearn’d pleasure gay ; 
See her bright robes the butterfly unfold, 
Broke from her wintry tomb in prime of May ! 
What youthful bride can equal her array ? 
Who can with her for easy pleasure vie ? 
From mead to mead with gentle wing to stray, 
From flower to flower on balmy gales to fly, 
Ts all she hath to do beneath the radiant sky.” 
Tuomson’s Castle of Indolence. 
The Lepidopterous insects were divided by Linnzeus, the great classifier of the animal and vegetable kingdoms, 
into three primary genera, Papilio, Sphinx, and Phalzena, each subdivided into minor groups, and corresponding 
with the butterflies, hawk-moths and moths of English collectors. As, however, tle number of species became 
more and more extended, and a more minute investigation of the characters of the species was made, it became 
necessary to introduce a much more extended mode of distribution, whereby the order was divided into three 
principal sections, Diurna, Crepuscularia, and Nocturna (corresponding with the three Linnean genera). These 
have been again subdivided into families, and the latter into numerous genera and subgenera. The Crepuscularia 
and Nocturna, or the hawk-moths and moths, are, however, much more closely allied together than either of them 
are to the Diurna; so that M. Boisduval, the most recent author upon the order, has proposed to adopt only two 
principal sections, Rhopalocera, or those with clubbed antenne (butterflies), and Heterocera or those with antennz 
of variable shape but never clubbed (hawk-moths and moths), This arrangement appearing to me the most 
natural of any yet published, I have adopted it in my “ Introduction to the Modern Classification of Insects ;” 
but in the present work it will be convenient to adopt the previous arrangement of Latreille ; the butterflies and 
hawk-moths being intended to form the subjects of the present volume, whilst the moths, or the section Nocturna, 
will form a subsequent volume. 
